Our GP’s are busy providing medical services to patients under the NHS contract. Private work is undertaken outside of or in addition to NHS time, which may be scarce for personal or professional reasons. Due to these resource pressures please be aware you may be advised to seek a private service elsewhere for some requests such as Occupational Medicals, Sports Medicals or Taxi Medicals.
I only need the doctor’s signature – what is the problem?
When a doctor signs a certificate or completes a report it is a condition of remaining on the Medical Register that they only sign what they know to be true.
In order to complete even the simplest of forms therefore, the doctor might have to check the patient’s entire medical record. Carelessness or an inaccurate report can have serious consequences for the doctor with the General Medical Council (the doctors’ regulatory body) or even the police.
Tests and investigations
If Caldbeck Surgery receives requests from private providers to arrange tests or investigations, it is important to note that complying with such requests – regardless of the GP’s management and treatment of the patient – is outside the scope of NHS primary medical services. Any such requests will be declined and the patient advised to make alternative arrangements.
Medications
If Caldbeck Surgery is requested by a private consultant to initiate or continue prescribing medications, and if your doctor agrees with this advice, then this could be appropriate. However, if your doctor does not feel competent to prescribe the requested medication, or they do not know how the medication best serves the patient’s need, the doctor will inform the private provider that the prescriptions should be provided by a specialist. This may be at an extra cost to the patient.
Non-NHS services and private charges
The NHS covers most healthcare needs, but certain administrative and medical tasks fall outside its remit. This includes forms, letters, and medicals required by employers, insurers, or other third parties. This is known as PRIVATE WORK and therefore incur a private fee.
Examples of these services are:
- private sick notes
- insurance forms
- holiday cancellation forms
- medical reports
- fitness to travel letters
- private prescriptions
- passport signing
- some vaccination services
Our charges are currently £18 for simple documents taking less than 15 minutes to complete.
For more complex documents or forms that require more than 15 minutes of a clinician’s time to complete, an additional charge of £39 will apply for each subsequent 15-minute interval.
These charges reflect the time, administration, and resources required to deliver non-NHS services.